Bethesda Softworks says it will soon announce its plans to patch and fix bugs in its just-released Fallout: New Vegas. Although the Obsidian-developed game is receiving a generally positive critical reception, much of the response to the game has made note of an unusually high degree of bugs in the post-apocalyptic roleplaying game.

"Mid-battle a foe may suddenly plummet through the game world or get stuck on a rock, making for an easy kill," said Game Informer's Andrew Reiner; Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann discovered "a list of incredibly annoying bugs that only got worse as I continued playing", although both reviewers recommended the game.

In fact, Gerstmann even advised: "If you're the type of person who likes to watch for a patch or two before settling into a game, know this now: you probably don't want to play Fallout: New Vegas right away."

Initial play of the just-debuted game by fans have also found a number of other polish-related issues, although none are known to stop in-game progress on the open-world game.

But Bethesda says it hopes not to make those watchers wait too long: "We are currently working on releasing patches/updates as quickly as possible for Fallout: New Vegas, for all platforms," says the company in a statement to Gamasutra. "Announcements regarding the patches are forthcoming."

Fallout: New Vegas launched yesterday on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in North America, and will launch tomorrow in Australia and on Friday in Europe. The game is set after the events of Bethesda's Fallout 3, staged in a future-dystopian Las Vegas as it begins to show slow signs of recovery from nuclear disaster.